Quote from candyloop
This might sound silly, but just to make sure about something, you both don't imply that buterfly and monster where real, right?
My original idea (I talk about this somewhere above in the thread) was that they were sort of common subjective experiences --- which is still real, but is closer to "mass hallucination" than real in the objective sense of the word.
But bukuwawa has convinced me that they're real. Komatsuzaki isn't just occasionally having visions of this thing; he's really working for momma.
The butterflies show up on the news reports, come to think of it (at Hitano/Sakaki's breakfast table; in Komatsuzaki's abandoned apartment when the cops are watching TV ...)
Quote from bukuwawa
<bukuwawa> oh stephen question from the nijigahara thread
<bukuwawa> what is the literal translation of Hana Ichi Monme
<flyingrobots> looks like it's a classic japanese unit of weight
<flyingrobots> a monme is 3.75g
<flyingrobots> so it would be "one monme of flowers"
Awesome, thanks. Didn't know Stephen was flyingrobots ... leeched fresh manga goodness off his fserve more times than I can remember.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any way offhand in which this contributes ... probably there's nothing there, then (will mull on it). But seriously, thanks for following up.
Re: the rainbow theme, just realized that HiguBro's cafe is called "prism."
Still don't know about the picture on HiguBro's wall, though I noticed that it says "Romantic" in the corner on p169; and now I'm reading Asano's Solanin and notice (a) there's a Romantic music studio there, and (b) the same giraffe poster that's on HiguBro's other wall is on Inoue's apartment wall on v01ch03p002. So I guess we can strike these off the list of integral Nijgahara story elements. smile
Edit: for clarity.
All right, I keep going back to tie up some of these loose ends, but end up getting distracted by new things.
Check out the group of cops on p018. Short guy on the right is holding a towel.
Next panel, the detective starts asking questions. He's got heavy eyelids, and thick eyebrows that don't go out as far as the full width of his eyes.
Next page, we see the detective, still asking questions, wiping his face and neck with the towel. So we know that the detective is the short guy. He's got a tendency to purse his lips too.
You probably already know where this is going. p095 ... short heavy-lidded part-width-eyebrowed detective appears, wiping his jowl with his collar. Pursed lips on p096. On p222 and p278 we see him wiping his neck and face again, and on p280 there he is as he was in the beginning, towel in hand.
So the detective in charge at the tunnel in 1991 and the short-white-haired older cop in 2003 are the same guy.
(edited for dates)
Quote from bukuwawa
I don't think I mentioned this anywhere in the thread, but I always (well, before we started this thread) assumed that Arie and Amahiko both fell at essentially the same moment. I do think that Amahiko jumped, and wasn't pushed, so I don't know if that first panel is showing her or him, but I sort of assume it's her still, since everyone is crowding around someone (with white skin) facing the other way.
The idea that they fell at the same moment had entered my mind also. I think that's a fair guess. Agree also that Amahiko let himself fall backward, whereas Arie ...? But if you look at the first panel on p027 (that's what you mean by the first panel, right?) I don't think it can be her ... the two white legs you see are wearing the legs of different pairs of shorts --- in other words, they're the legs of two different people, neither of whom is Arie, who's wearing a dress. That doesn't mean they aren't two of the kids who are driving her toward the well, despite the fact that we don't see said kids with bookbags elsewhere in this episode. But it remains a confusing panel.
Last edited by blakraven66 at 2:27 am, Jan 2 2009